[Borges]

I just got my MA in English not too long ago so you can take my word for it! My use of the term 'hatchet job' was strictly rhetorical. I like Stone's work here and there and have defended his best films here. LTOC of course is based on a Greek novel which is apparently standard school reading in Greek schools. So Greek acquaintances have told me anyway. Scorsese is a former seminarian and it struck me as the work of a troubled believer. Though I'll never convince anyone who thinks otherwise. The old saying is 'fiction never lies'. As long as you take it as fiction. Or in this case historical fiction like Shakespeare, a play like Amadeus, Tolstoy's caricature of Napoleon in 'War and Peace' or this much lesser work.

[mudblood]

English is a worthy discipline, and a direction I almost went myself.

Everyone appreciates the difference between fact and something that is "just a novel". My problem is when the boundary is blurred by lies that are portrayed as facts - especially about a topic that cuts to the core of millions of people, and I'm talking about their faith. Books, the Internet and any media have the power to completely disassemble a person's faith through the worst kind of cleverness, and Dan Brown exploited this. There are a lot of people who are upset and him for what he's done - something that could have been COMPLETELY FORGIVEN if he'd chosen to detail all the departures from history he took, rather than turning them into "things that make you go hmmm" the way he did.